The textile trade has been a mainstay of the Florentine economy since the middle ages. By the early sixteenth century, the mass production of woolen cloth had already given way to a smaller and more luxurious commerce in silks, brocades, fine linens, embroideries, trimmings and specialty fabrics--an identity that is still proudly maintained today by Florence's fashion and interior furnishings industries.

During the age of the Medici Grand Dukedom of Tuscany (1537-1743), quality clothing and textiles were vastly expensive and thus intensely prized. A single court costume for a man or a woman cost as much as a large house and a set of brocade wall hangings out-priced a whole room of major old-master paintings. Such extravagant creations were daily necessities of life at the Medici Court, complementing its brilliant cycle of festivals and ceremonies. Their creation and use are richly documented in the Medici Archive in Florence.

THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT is addressing three essential issues in the history of costume and textiles:

1. What was specifically Florentine about Florentine style in the renaissance, baroque and rococo periods? The MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT is working to define this concept by matching the documentary sources with the surviving visual evidence.
   
   
2. Who were the individuals that created Florentine style, as documented in the Florentine archives? There are many lost biographies waiting to be recreated in the correspondence of the Medici Court, the records of the Medici Granducal Workshops and the private papers of individual craftsman and designers. The MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT is now preparing the definitive critical edition of the "Richordanze" of Gasparre di Matteo Landini--an early sixteenth-century Florentine manufacturer of luxury fabrics.
   
   
3. What was the international dimension of Florentine style? Then as now, fashion was crucial to the Florentine image abroad. The Medici Granducal Workshops planned and produced lavish state gifts of apparel and textile furnishings that were treasured by princes and courtiers throughout Europe. This essential aspect of Tuscan cultural diplomacy is eloquently documented in the Medici Archive.